Deena Zaidi

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been much in news ever since China showed interest in forming a bank that focused on infrastructure projects in the Asian region. Established in 2014, the Asian lending institution has a target of $100 billion in registered capital with China having most of its initial $50bn in capital.

India is one of the fastest growing economies with a very young demographic and a huge potential for growth. Like any other economy, India too, focuses on controlling inflation and keeping its markets stable.

Banking activity is growing rapidly in China’s $30tn banking system and even though the country faces a sluggish economy, its banking system consists of some of the largest banks of the world. The combined value of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China is now at par with the four big US banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo).

As banks slowly approach the age of digitalization they already seem to be facing tough challenges that are related to their own systems’ security. Banks have been victims to many cyber crimes but so far the crimes had been related to hacking into customers’ accounts.

Credit Rating Agencies have been a lot in news ever since the US Subprime Mortgage Crisis 2007. Later, Europe blamed them for making matters worse for individual countries by downgrading Greece and Cyprus to ‘junk’ status.

Ethics & Banking are supposed to be strongly related to each other, which could potentially lead to strong governance and a stable economy. However, in recent years, poor regulation, sloppy governance, shadow banking & greed for profits has led to a global economic collapse.

The Banker's Top 500 Banking Brands February edition 2015 released a league table of the world’s biggest banks, ranked by their brand value. A lot of ranks seemed to have changed thus reflecting a change in the banking industry across the globe.

NUMBER26 is a young company based in Berlin that aims to revolutionize the traditional banking industry and how people spend, save and send money. NUMBER26 is Europe's most modern way of banking. With NUMBER26 the current account is reinvented. Currently, the service is available only in Germany and Austria and will expand next year to other countries in Europe.

State-owned banks have long dominated banking in China, but China wants to do things differently now. The Chinese government wants improve its financial sector by creating more confidence and responsiveness towards private customers.

The Banking Industry has evolved tremendously over a period of time. Nowadays, modern banking sector is doing away with its traditional methods and shifting focus to a more advanced and digitally connected network.

Oil prices have raised concerns across the globe. But the story of oil glut is not new. In 1980s, world price of oil rose at US$35 per barrel but fell to below US$10 per barrel by 1986. At that time the oil price collapse benefitted USA, Europe, Japan and the third world nations since they were oil- consuming countries.

2015 might be a very important year for many economies across the globe. Last quarter of 2014, saw many fluctuations in the economic indicators of different countries. While US ended 2014 with a good performance, Russia faced double trouble with falling currency and oil prices.

2014 witnessed slow growth in the world economy. It tested economies of emerging markets and advanced economies. Economies like Eurozone, Japan and Russia saw some major financial shocks. On the other hand, when compared to 2013, advanced countries like USA improved their growth and raised their employment rate.

2015 might not be a very pleasant one for Russia. The country faces the worst of financial failures since 1998. The Ukraine conflict, exclusion from G8, western sanctions; a high inflation, falling GDP growth and rising unemployment had already been heating the economy. But with the falling oil prices and domestic currency losing its value, Russia got caught in a perfect storm.

A month after America’s banks witnessed their largest quarterly revenue increase since 2009; Federal Reserve announced that it would increase capital requirements for eight of the largest banks across the country.

In 2001, the term BRIC was coined by Jim O'Neill, formerly with Goldman Sachs, who had used the acronym in his thesis on emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China. With inclusion of South Africa in 2010, BRICS was formed. It started to reflect the strength of the emerging markets across the globe.

Banks have evolved over a period of time and have tried their best to remodel themselves with changing times and remain in sync with their customers’ needs. With practically everything online from buying books to getting air tickets, banks are trying hard to live up to the customers’ expectations that are mostly technology driven.